I have been planning to start my
blog to express my views on what is currently happening in social and political
space in India. Also wanted to follow events happening in the 1st
world, having any impact on India & Indians.
On 26th January 2013, my
day started by tuning in to Times Now news and was surprised to watch a
programme compiling songs from old and new Bollywood movies explaining how the
“Spirit” of Indian Freedom has evolved over the years. It got me thinking, if
India is still the “Republic” as it declared itself in 1950?
A simple definition of Republic
states it as “A state in which supreme power is held by the people and their
elected representatives, and which has an elected or nominated president”
In India the supreme power is
definitely held by the elected representatives of people but how much those
elected representatives think / care about the ordinary people of India needs
to be closely inspected.
I don’t want to sound depressing.
When we look at the current state of affairs in India, the picture is not very
encouraging. Even just a plain reading of daily news papers makes my belief
stronger, day by day.
The glaring inequality within the
society is very striking!!! Abuse of
Power and Money is so evident, sometimes I feel that we Indians take it as part
of our system and have no regrets about it? May be its because of our cultural
values, we always like to paint a very rosy picture to the onlookers and always
live in state of denial about social issues.
By starting this blog, I am
taking the liberty to discuss all such issues and would be happy to get your
thoughts and feedback so that we can, in our own ways, do what is required to
make a difference and initiate the momentum to create a better Indian society
for us and the generations to come.
The beginning of the new year had
a shadow of the brutal event that occurred in Delhi in December 2012. There was
a large public outcry and protest, Media also emerged as a very aggressive and
influential element. Since the Lokpal movement, media has been systematically
raising ( and also dropping !!! ) issues to ensure their TRP and playing at the
hands of their masters. With the growing
corporate control over media houses, un biased and independent news reporting
is fast disappearing.
Recent case of the popular
entertainment network’s new anchors being arrested for extortion claims should
be an eye opener for those who believe that being a Media, they assume endless
power to question, criticise and defame anybody and everybody. The Expose of
Neera Radia tapes has already allowed us to question credibility of almost all
popular news anchors and their channel heads.
What happened in Delhi was not
any unique case in isolation. There have been worse brutal incidences in the
country but this time Media managed to create a momentum that resulted in to
“event management” of protests during holiday period.
Then suddenly the focus got
shifted to “India Vs. Pakistan” after the beheading of Indian soldiers by
Pakistani Army. It remained in the news for few days, there were talks hosted
on almost all news channels and gave lot of media attention to self-proclaimed defense experts from India and also across the border!!! As of today, I don’t
know if the families of those deceased soldiers have enough support from the
army / government or for that matter from any social organisations. How their
wives are going to sustain and continue their livelihood and if their kids can
carry on and pursue education?? May be I am just ignorant and not aware of what
is happening to them?
Then there was the Vishwaroopam
saga. This is a classic example of how personal / political motivations with
the help of few radical people can “stall” any exhibition / performance of art
/ artist. I fail to understand how some one can conclude that the movie / part
of it is hurting religious sentiments of minority community in our country,
when the movie has not been released and no one has watched the entire movie.
So how such opinions / views can be even entertained? I do agree that we have a
democracy in India and people have right to their opinion and right to protest.
But when the government in power tries to hide behind such feeble arguments for
the sake of vote bank politics, there is not much left for the movie producers
to do than to reach an amicable settlement behind closed doors. There was an interesting view point published
on one leading website : Why
the onus of secularism falls on Muslims too
2013 has just started and we are
in the 1st week of February, but after all these events it feels
like any old year gone bye.
Today ( 6th February
2013) Narendra Modi gave a pep talk to all the aspiring students @ Shree Ram
College of Commerce and spoke of development and good governance. Considering
arrival of Modi in Delhi, there were few protesters outside with posters saying
“go back Modi”. Notwithstanding the protesters outside the venue who were
obsessed only with his past, Modi showed that for the youth of India, the
future is more important than the past. They want to move on and I guess that’s
how any progressive society manages to evolve and enrich.
And when one leader was speaking
about development, another prominent leader from the same party opted for a
“Holly Dip” @ kumbh mela and revived their favourite “Temple” agenda. Now is
this a planned move to reach out to all sections of the society or a mentality
that is not ready to accept that India as a country has far bigger problems to
tackle in the name of lack of basic facilities and health to majority of our
society, illiteracy, caste / religion divide, child labour, safety of women in
our society, corruption, the list is long and scary !!! But still the majority
of our political leaders use that to their advantage to retain their power and
grow their stature and hold on this nation.
And now a reflection of Buttering
that prevails in almost all fields in our society and more so in the Politics
!!!
The power politics has reached
such a new heights that most of the aspiring / prospective leadership
candidates have now realised that the Post of the Leader of the party and the
tag of king maker in this country is reserved for the Politically influential
family so these candidates hoping for the 2nd line of command have
very few chances and they can get the blessing only by indulging in to such
extra buttering rather than any real performance.
Most of the BIG political leaders
in India consider Politics as their family business and do anything to retain
the power within their family. While researching his new book
India: A Portrait – published in India and the UK in January 2011 by Penguin,
and forthcoming in the USA from Knopf in June 2011 – Patrick French
(@PatrickFrench2 on Twitter) conducted a one-of-its kind survey which tried to
answer the following question: What does it take to join politics at the
national level today? Is it within or out of reach for the many millions of
capable Indians who might like to throw a hat in the ring?
46.8% of the MPs have no
significant family political background. Three out of ten MPs (28.6%) entered
politics through family connections. This did not seem a surprising statistic,
but further investigation revealed more.
Breaking down the data further,
we found that an alarming 69.5% of women MPs came into politics through family
connections. After the 108th Constitution Amendment (passed by the Indian
Parliament in 2010 to reserve 33 per cent of seats in national and
state-elected bodies for women) is implemented, this number is likely to rise
further.
Then came a much more disturbing
piece of information: A dis-aggregated analysis of the political background of
MPs with age suggests that there is a direct linear relationship between age
and hereditary MPs: a greater proportion of younger MPs have a family political
background, in comparison to others. So if you are young and want to join
national politics, one of the only available routes seems to be through family
connections. Take a look at this:
· All MPs whose age is less than 30 years are
hereditary.
· More than two-thirds of MPs aged under 40 are
hereditary.
· 27 MPs are ‘hyper hereditary’, and 19 of them
are in the Congress party. By hyper hereditary, we mean that they have several
family members who have made a career out of politics.
As I conclude my 1st
ever post, the question in my mind still remains, is present day India the kind
of republic that was intended by our forefathers during Indian Freedom Movement? I am not convinced and would like to know if
you are……….
Jai Hind.
